Former NFL player Trent Dilfer is now the head football coach at Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, and he has been widely criticized after a video emerged showing him shoving and screaming at one of his players.
The player, Beau Dawson, is the son of former NFL kicker Phil Dawson, who is also Lipscomb Academy’s special teams coordinator. The video shows Dilfer grabbing him Beau Dawson by the front of the shoulder pads, driving him backward, shoving him and screaming at him. Several high school football coaches have weighed in to say that Dilfer’s actions were inappropriate, and Dilfer acknowledged as much in a statement released by the school.
“I want to address the incident on our sideline during Friday night’s game versus Independence that has drawn a lot of attention,” Dilfer said. “First and foremost, I take full responsibility as the head coach and leader of our team for not deescalating an emotional situation with one of our players, Beau Dawson. Beau is one of our finest student-athletes and embodies all the characteristics we are looking for in our Mustang players. Beau plays the game with the right kind of passion and is an inspiration to our other players. During a moment of frustration in an attempt to get our team to play with more discipline, I unfairly singled Beau out. Somehow Beau Dawson has been portrayed publicly as the culprit in this situation, when in reality I should have been a better leader and shown greater wisdom and discernment in how I handled this incident. Overall, I could not be more proud of Beau and the rest of our team for how they handle the emotional nature of each game they compete in.”
There has been no word on whether Dilfer will face any disciplinary action.